Paper
by Insomniac Owl
Summary: Naruto was at the park when he saw him, a boy of paper, with eyes just as lifeless.


**Paper-Blank**

_by Insomniac Owl_

-

His cerulean blue eyes are hollow with hunger and loneliness, and a thin film of cheerful oblivion.

He crouches in the grass of the park, absently threading his fingers through the grass like the bugs that follow them blindly, not quite knowing what he is doing there at all. It is Saturday; there was no school and he is tired of being alone.

Perhaps, he supposes.

Here at the park of course, there is no difference; he is still alone. But here he can form an illusion that he is a member of the family over to his left, or with the two boys that had just walked in.

His eyes are drawn to the two - their hair is raven-black, so unlike his blond, and the older one carries himself with graceful power and balance - and he watches, blatantly staring as they make their way toward the swings. There are only four swings - all of them occupied by a laughing child - but that doesn't seem to matter. The younger one says something, but the older one shakes his head, mouthing words he can't make out. The younger nods, and miraculously, just as they reach the swings, one of the girls leaps off and dashes away, leaving an empty swing as if by magic.

Naruto's mouth drops open just a bit, failing to notice the beetle that had scurried up his stationary fingers. It pauses on his middle knuckle, antennae waving blindly, searching for something it can see by touch alone, and is suddenly lifted high above the earth, where it loses its hold and falls. Naruto isn't quite sure why he's standing, only that he can't tear his eyes off those two boys.

The younger one climbs onto the swing and begins to rock himself back and forth, gaining momentum _(higher, Higher, HIGHER! and let the wind caress your face)_ until it seems as if he's flying. The wind is whipping his hair back as he climbs, then rips it forward and into his eyes as he falls, laughing, back toward the earth. And the cycle continues, relentless.

The older boy stands a short distance away, watching his brother swing. Naruto can't help but notice that the expression hasn't changed since he walked into the park, still carrying that same paper blankness as if he doesn't know how to smile on his own.

_(Squeeee… Squeee)_

The younger boy swings on, moving like a pendulum beside his brother.

The boy's head turns slightly, and their eyes meet across the park, spanning the length of grass between them, spanning hulls of flesh, bugs, and _time_. That has frozen for an instant, just as he has.

Those eyes are _bad_, there's no other word for it. Paper-blank and strangely lifeless, without emotion.

"Nii-san! Nii-san catch me!" The little boy cries out, and the next moment he's flying through the air, smiling and laughing freely. Naruto starts forward, his mind screaming for him to stop, to simply cease falling, safe. His brother can't possibly get there in time - nobody can - he's going to fall on his head and he's going to -

The next moment he's laughing, nestled safely in his brother's arms as if he knew he would be caught. As if he didn't know he'd been falling, his image reflected in Naruto's frightened eyes. Naruto doesn't even know why he was frightened for him - he doesn't know him, there is no reason he should be concerned for his safety - but he was, inexplicably frightened, recalling that emotionless look on the older brother's face and somehow _knowing_ that he wouldn't bother moving. Even though he'd been wrong.

_(Squeeee… Squeeee…)_

The older one speaks (though Naruto is still too far to understand) and gently deposits his brother on the ground where he stands, smiling upwards. The lips move; a faint whisper on the wind.

The younger boy shakes his head emphatically, lips moving without sound, and looks up into his brother's face, smiling and hopeful. Naruto wonders vaguely, in a childish way half-formed, how he cannot see the _badness_ in his brothers eyes, the flat cold emptiness.

He doesn't know what the older one says next (_Let me take you home and eat you_, he half-imagines, half-_knows_) but he wishes he did. He wants to know what those evil lips spoke of, what lies they are spilling. He wants to know what those evil eyes see, what those evil hands do and touch and feel, and how many people he's killed so far. He wants to know everything about that paper boy, so that he can fill in a few places, and make him not so blank.

He wonders, as the boy takes his little brother's hand and they begin walking toward the exit, what they would do if he ran up and hugged them. They're leaving, slipping away, and for some reason he can't bear it. He wants to know what would happen, he wants to fill in that paper-blankness and understand why he's so evil. He bare feet, scratched and scabbed in some places because he hasn't any decent shoes, carry him swiftly across the grass. He ignores the sharp pain of cracking branches beneath his feet, concentrates only on reaching those raven-haired brother, on throwing his arms around the older one because he wants to _know_.

His child's mind cannot comprehend such a yearning, and takes it in stride as a mere _want_, but it is curiosity. A morbid desire. It fits among questions like 'why do people die?', and 'what would it be like to kill someone?'. Just as he does not know the answer to these, neither does he know what the older boy would do.

He's acting out his thoughts, and there is a pressure on his forehead, something sliding into his ankles, and then he is lying on the ground, eyes staring up into a matching cerulean sky.

Two pairs of coal black eyes watch him - one curiously, the other blankly.

"Nii-san? Who is he?"

He hears their footsteps as they turn, and then the words the older boy speaks. Those words nearly break his heart, and even long after they leave, he cannot bring himself to rise from the ground. He simply lies there, still, unconscious to the world around him. His eyes, the same color as the sky high above him, are filled with tears.

"He's no one important."

**finis**


End file.
